In a conventional optoelectronic component, adhesion media, for example adhesives, solders, encapsulation layers, metal seals and/or covering bodies, such as glass bodies, for example, are used for connecting and/or sealing component parts of the optoelectronic component. Applying these auxiliary media to the component parts of the optoelectronic component that are to be connected and/or sealed can often be relatively time-consuming, cost-intensive and/or imprecise. Upon drying and/or upon loading caused by thermal cycling of adhesion media and/or encapsulation layers, cracks or holes can occur in the corresponding layers. Furthermore, during the production of the corresponding optoelectronic components, particles can get into the layers or between the layers. These cracks, holes and/or particles can have the effect that the corresponding optoelectronic component functions only to a restricted extent or no longer functions at all.
Particularly in the case of optoelectronic surface light sources such as OLEDs, for example, the hermetic shielding of organic functional layer structures is important in order to ensure for example the storage stability, for example 10 years, and/or the lifetime in operation, for example over 10 000 hours. For example, permeability values for moisture and/or oxygen of less than 10−6 g/cm/d can be required here. Known media for sealing and/or encapsulating the optoelectronic components are very sensitive with regard to particle loading, inter alia, and known processes can even reduce the lifetime, in favor of longer storage times. Therefore, in known methods, TFE thin-film encapsulations are produced under a very clean atmosphere with the most minimal particle loading, for example in a TFE process without a shadow mask. The TFE encapsulation can be for example a CVD, ALD, PECUP layer or some other layer. As an alternative thereto, other encapsulation methods are also employed, for example cavity encapsulation and glass solder encapsulation.